NASCAR wrapped up the 10th season of the Chase for the Sprint Cup era Sunday, a year unlike any other in the last decade – and not in a good way.

There was a race-fixing scandal that rocked the Chase, driver injuries and a championship battle that resembled more of a pillow fight than a boxing match.

So what did we learn on the long, strange trip that the 2013 season has been?

Let's take a closer look:

Don't mess with the Chase.

When crew chief Brian Pattie told Clint Bowyer to "itch" his arm late in September's Chase cutoff race at Richmond International Raceway, it set off a series of events from which no winners emerged.

Bowyer's spin cost Ryan Newman a Chase berth, and further manipulation by Michael Waltrip Racing – including ordering Bowyer and Brian Vickers to make unnecessary pit stops – knocked Jeff Gordon out of the Chase and put MWR's Martin Truex Jr. in the pool of a dozen qualifiers.

But when the details emerged, NASCAR hastily called a late-night news conference to announce Truex was out – thanks to the largest penalty in the sport's history -- and Newman would qualify. That wasn't enough for many Gordon fans, who sparked a social media firestorm until NASCAR Chairman Brian France decided to create an unprecedented 13th playoff spot for Gordon.

Meanwhile, NASCAR created a "100% Rule" that requires drivers to go hard at all times – with several exceptions, of course.

While those reactions damaged NASCAR's credibility as a sport, MWR's already was ruined. Sponsor NAPA pulled the plug on its backing of Truex's No. 56 team, which led to the team essentially shutting down. Truex, one of the biggest victims in the scandal, ended up finding a new home at Furniture Row Racing.

In short, we learned teams would be better off to just let the race play out instead of trying to manipulate the results in an unsportsmanlike way. Also, never itch your arm in a race car.

PHOTOS: Tony Stewart's sprint car crash in Iowa

Tony Stewart is loaded into an ambulance after being involved in a four-car wreck at Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa. Stewart broke his right leg. (Photo: Mary Willie, Des Moines Register)

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Racers may seem larger than life, but they're human like the rest of us and thus prone to injury or illness.

This season saw more NASCAR-related health issues than perhaps the last 10 years combined.

It also saw the death of a former NASCAR driver trying to work his way back into the sport, which sparked the longstanding debate about the safety of sprint car races and dirt tracks.

Consider:

--Feb. 23: Michael Annett breaks his sternum in a crash during the opening race of the Nationwide Series season at Daytona International Speedway. He misses eight races.

--March 24: Denny Hamlin breaks his back in an accident at Auto Club Speedway when he and Joey Logano got tangled. He misses four races and part of a fifth, effectively ending his hopes of making the Chase. He misses the playoff for the first time in his career.

--June 12: Former full-time driver Jason Leffler is killed while racing sprint cars in New Jersey. More than 800 people attended Leffler's funeral – including a sizable portion of the racing community -- and hats with his "Lefturn" nickname could often be seen in the NASCAR garage.

--Aug. 5: Three-time Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart breaks his right leg in a sprint car crash and misses the final four months of the season. He undergoes three surgeries, two to repair the double compound fracture and one to remove infected tissue. His rehabilitation continues today.

--Aug. 12: Nationwide Series driver Eric McClure is hospitalized for the first of multiple occasions with an undisclosed illness, causing him to miss six races.

--Aug. 24: Martin Truex Jr. breaks his right wrist in a crash at Bristol Motor Speedway, and MWR teammate Brian Vickers sustains an ankle injury. Vickers' injury required a walking boot, which led to a blood clot and sidelined the driver for the final four races of the season. He's expected to return next year.

--Aug. 28: Bobby Labonte breaks three ribs in a bicycle accident and misses three races.

--Nov. 12: Trevor Bayne reveals he has multiple sclerosis, though he currently has no symptoms.

Jimmie Johnson might be a superhero.

Actually, there might be one driver who has achieved superhero status: Johnson, who won his sixth title in eight seasons and established himself as one of the greatest drivers ever – if not the greatest.

While all of his competitors had at least one bad race during the 10-race playoff, Johnson triumphed with a mistake-free Chase yet again. His perfection is practically unhuman, and crew chief Chad Knaus even said Johnson "can do things with a race car that most mortals can't."

The scary thing for the rest of the competition? Johnson and Knaus only seem to be getting better. That prompted Richard Petty – tied with Dale Earnhardt for a record seven titles -- to suggest Johnson was "liable to go to eight to 10" championships.

Johnson seemed to get more respect from the NASCAR community after winning his sixth title than he did after winning five in a row from 2006-10. Perhaps two years without a championship helped show how difficult it is to win even one title after a half-decade of Johnson making it look easy.

Either way, we learned Johnson is certainly the best driver of his era and practically unbeatable when he's at the top of his game.

PHOTOS: Best of the Sprint Cup finale

Jimmie Johnson cemented his status as one of NASCAR's greatest drivers with his sixth Sprint Cup championship at the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. (Photo: Andrew Weber, USA TODAY Sports)

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Johnson, Matt Kenseth and Kevin Harvick laughed together and held off on any trash talk when they got together for a news conference before the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. But that was no surprise, considering they're all friends.

That's nice for them, but many fans don't find such friendships to be compelling viewing. NASCAR is at its best when rivalries create drama and even generate tempers.

Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano had a good rivalry going until Hamlin got hurt earlier in the year when Logano wrecked him while racing for the win. Just a few minutes later, Logano and Tony Stewart were in a fist fight on pit road after Logano blocked Stewart on the track. And Kyle Busch clashed with Brad Keselowski in a Nationwide race at Kansas Speedway, which saw Keselowski jump from his wrecked car on the track and race across the infield and down pit road in search of someone -- anyone -- to hash things out with. That led to talk the feud could carry over into Cup (it didn't).

When drivers are too friendly, it seems like something is missing. We learned from this Chase that it's more fun to watch drivers who aren't friends (like Keselowski and Johnson last year) battling it out for the title.

The Gen 6 car still needs some work.

The much-discussed new cars certainly look better than the previous generation – known as the "Car of Tomorrow" -- but did they race better? A season focused more on off-track news than on-track excitement would indicate no.

The car certainly had a better debut than the COT, but it wasn't a game-changer. Too many races on intermediate tracks still were decided thanks to track position and aerodynamics that made it hard to pass.

NASCAR hopes a tweak in the rules package for next season will help make for a better racing product in the coming years, but we learned the new cars haven't lived up to the hype yet.

Danica Patrick is NASCAR's biggest name but hasn't performed.

Patrick is a celebrity whose brand extends well beyond the racing world. Fortunately for her, people outside that realm don't follow her results very closely.

Patrick had a highly disappointing rookie season. She finished better than 20th place just five times in 36 races and ended up 27th in the point standings with cars capable of far better.

It didn't seem to matter, though. Sponsor GoDaddy has indicated on multiple occasions it's happy with Patrick as a spokesperson and plans to use her in more Super Bowl commercials. Meanwhile, sponsors such as Coke Zero and Tissot watches keep investing in Patrick. Even when she crashed into boyfriend and eventual rookie of the year winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. twice on the track, it only gained her more publicity – the incident was the main story on top entertainment websites.

When Jim Rome's show on Showtime had a driver guest heading into the season finale, it wasn't Jimmie Johnson or Matt Kenseth or even Kevin Harvick. It was Patrick, who told USA TODAY Sports she hopes to host Saturday Night Live one day (and will host the American Country Awards on Dec. 10).

So what did we learn about Patrick? That her brand is so successful she can keep driving as long as she wants regardless of the results.

The second-place jinx lives on.

Clint Bowyer, who finished second in last year's standings, went winless this season. Why is that significant? Because since 2005, every Chase runner-up has seen his wins and points position decline the following season. In Bowyer's case, he went from three wins to winless and seventh in the standings.

In the last six seasons, the drivers who finished second the previous year have won a combined one race.

When NASCAR's first new car design since 2007 makes its debut at Daytona Speedweeks, fans should instantly notice one change - the 2013 models will look much different from each other. Brand identity has been a goal of NASCAR's to enable fans to immediately spot a Chevrolet, Ford or Toyota during a race. Besides the exterior changes, the Gen 6 cars are lighter and safer, and aerodynamic changes should result in closer racing.